Your final assignment in the class will be a review of a book of poetry. The review should be between 750-1250 words, and it should review a book of poetry that has been published in just the last two years (nothing before 2020).
Sample Reviews:
"Magic City Gospel by Ashley M. Jones" Review by Jose Angel Araguz in Fjords Review
"Attributed to Harrow Painter by Nick Twemlow" Review by Stephanie Burt in Rain Taxi Review of Books
"Fast by Jorie Graham. Depths by Susan Howe" Review by Kevin Corallo in Rain Taxi Review of Books
Poetry reviews are not like typical book or movie reviews. The essentials are the same: you want to relay the who, what, when, where, and why of the work, and you want to give your opinion of it. Poetry reviews are different, though, in that they are often like poetry themselves; in other words, reviewers of poetry take great pains to make their reviews lyrical, to pay attention to the sound and imagery used in the review itself (though they are written in essay form). The examples above are from Rain Taxi Review, a well-respected journal that publishes only reviews, and they can give you a good idea of what I mean, but read as many reviews as you can to really prepare for this type of writing, either from Rain Taxi or from any of the sources on this List of Poetry Review Outlets.
Here are some other guides that can help you write your review:
Some other things to keep in mind when choosing a book of poetry to review:
See D2L for due date.
Sample Reviews:
"Magic City Gospel by Ashley M. Jones" Review by Jose Angel Araguz in Fjords Review
"Attributed to Harrow Painter by Nick Twemlow" Review by Stephanie Burt in Rain Taxi Review of Books
"Fast by Jorie Graham. Depths by Susan Howe" Review by Kevin Corallo in Rain Taxi Review of Books
Poetry reviews are not like typical book or movie reviews. The essentials are the same: you want to relay the who, what, when, where, and why of the work, and you want to give your opinion of it. Poetry reviews are different, though, in that they are often like poetry themselves; in other words, reviewers of poetry take great pains to make their reviews lyrical, to pay attention to the sound and imagery used in the review itself (though they are written in essay form). The examples above are from Rain Taxi Review, a well-respected journal that publishes only reviews, and they can give you a good idea of what I mean, but read as many reviews as you can to really prepare for this type of writing, either from Rain Taxi or from any of the sources on this List of Poetry Review Outlets.
Here are some other guides that can help you write your review:
- "How to Write a Poetry Review," by Glynn Young
- "The 6 Most Overused Words in Poetry Reviews," by Glynn Young
Some other things to keep in mind when choosing a book of poetry to review:
- If you are hoping to get your review published, it is smarter to review a book that has only been out in the past eighteen months or so. The primary purpose of a review is to help a reader decide whether or not he/she should read a book. New releases are the most likely candidates because 1. they are new, which gives a certain level of excitement and 2. there hasn't been much written about them yet. Reviewing older or classic works doesn't make much sense because they are already so well-known. Part of your job as a reviewer is uncovering this work and putting it on display for readers.
- There is the ethical consideration of whether you want to write a review of a book you didn't like. Writers are conflicted on this point. Some say if you are not willing to reveal your honest opinion about a work, what is the point of reviews at all? Others say that gaining an audience for your poetry is such a struggle, giving someone's book a bad review is mean-spirited and unnecessary when you can just write a review of a book you did like instead.
- Choosing a poet who has written a number of books previous to the one you are reviewing usually means doing some research to determine what this poet's style and themes have been in the past and how this book varies from that. This doesn't mean that you have to read all the previous books, but you should read about the poet, read previous poems, and perhaps read reviews of previous works by the poet. The best resources for finding out information about poets and poetry are The Academy of American Poets and the Poetry Foundation. These sites should look familiar to you since I use links from them throughout this course website. To avoid the extra work of finding out about previous works, of course, you can always choose to review a debut collection.
See D2L for due date.